Mad Doll Doctor

My poor angel has a broken wing. This angel isn’t rare or even valuable, but it was a gift and it has a great deal of sentimental value. One would think I’d be accustomed to broken things by now. My husband is like a bull in a china shop and we’ve been married 27 years, so virtually everything that’s been in my house for any length of time has been broken and glued back together. However, this time it wasn’t the bull’s fault, the angel was broken by one of our calves; our middle daughter, Jessica, inherited her father’s klutz gene.

For this project I used an older paint brush, of which I had no real financial or emotional investment, a rag, dampened with water, but not soaked, a couple of heavy rubber bands and a small cup of water. I use plastic cups, not reusable food or beverage containers since I am generally distrustful of most chemicals and prefer to pitch them after use. More specialized items are a glue suitable for pottery, acrylic paints and a couple of smaller paint brushes, one course brush for drybrushing, one softer brush for laying in color.

I began by locating as many pieces of the wing as possible, I found one piece in the tub, another behind the toilet, a small piece in the window sill. Some pieces were shattered to powder. I’ll say this for my daughter, when she does something, she does it well.

The first order of business was to glue the main wing together. I used Aleene’s Patio & Garden Adhesive which works well on pottery, be sure and read the instructions. There are many other glues which will work and any hardware store can probably point you in the right direction. Use the damp rag to wipe away any excess glue. The heavy rubber band holds the two pieces together while the glue dries.

Once the glue was dry I mixed up a small ball of Apoxie Sculpt. I use Apoxie Sculpt for everything. If my nose suddenly dropped off my face, I would reach for the Apoxie Sculpt. It can be purchased on the internet, it’s very popular with taxidermists and doll repair hospitals. Since large pieces of the wing’s texture were broken off and smashed to smithereens, I had to re-sculpt the area, otherwise the smooth Apoxie would stick out like a sore thumb. I use Apoxie Sculpt sparingly, just enough to cover the missing areas, because while Apoxie Sculpt is sandable, it isn’t something I particularly enjoy.

Next I scribed in the details of the wings, starting and ending as it was before the breaks, this way the pattern will be uninterrupted and the repaired area will be virtually invisible. The highly specialized tool I used to scribe in the details was an orange wood stick, the kind you use to push back your cuticles…what can I say? I’m into cheap and they work great. Next I used my paint brush dipped in water to smooth the Apoxie Sculpt. Once satisfied with the details I set it aside to dry.

Once the Apoxie Sculpt was dry I gave it a light sanding. Time to paint! This is where an artist’s eye comes in handy. Look at the piece. No REALLY look at it. What colors do you see? Gray? Yeah, sure, But what else? I see brown, a little blackish green, a touch of blue here, a little verdigris green, some mint, even a touch of dark red, in addition to some creamy highlights. If you have difficulty seeing all those colors it’s probably because your busy brain is multi-tasking by interpreting it as one whole a mass of color. Sometimes it’s helpful to cut a small square out of a piece of paper then lay it over parts of the item you’re studying. It’s also helpful, especially when you’re working from photos, to turn the photo upside down, then the shapes and colors become unfamiliar and your brain isn’t as apt to predetermine the image for you. Once you’ve settled on colors, put down a basecoat. I used acrylic paint here, it’s cheap and dries quickly. If I were working on a rare antique French Bru doll I would of course, be more choosy, but standard acrylics will do for this project. The basecoat is a blend of gray and black green, I blended the colors until I got a very close match. Once the paint was dry, I gently drybrushed (very little paint, applied with a dry brush) with a few of the other colors to give it depth.

Lastly, I picked up a bit of highlight, I used a cream, a brown and pale green mixture, then I drybrushed it over the ridge and grooves. Don’t overdue the highlights! Let dry, and Waa-Laa! Your piece is good as new!

With minor tweaking these techniques should work for most of the common household accidents you’re apt to encounter. If you enjoy doing arts and crafts, or want to learn more about arts and crafts, my friend Cass, at Cass Knits has a new Online Craft Club.